Technology Strategic Decision Making (SDM): an overview of decision theories, processes and methods

Technology Strategic Decision Making (SDM) requires a fair amount of information regarding the field in which the technology is to be selected for (Kalbande and Thampi, 2009) due to the nature of technological uncertainty (Grant, 2012). The literature argues that different methods can be applied to these SDM processes, with the most common being the qualitative scorecard approach (Cooper, 2007; Goffin and Mitchell, 2016; Mitchell et al., 2014, 2017). In addition, these SDM processes should have unique selection criteria, due to the risky and uncertain nature of early stage technology projects (Ajamian and Koen, 2002; Koen et al., 2002) and due to the different outcomes each decision gate leads to (Cooper, 2006). In this paper, we contribute to the growing literature on technology strategic decision making by producing a narrative literature review on strategic decision making processes, decision theory and strategic decision making methods

What the United States (US) Intellectual Property (IP) waiver announcement tells us about patent values: A patent premium perspective on Covid-19 vaccine patents

Various innovation system actors, including government and policy makers have a long-standing interest in understanding the value of patent. The recent announcement of the US government to support waiving IP rights for Covid-19 vaccines provides a unique opportunity to learn better understanding the market value. With the announcement being specific to IP rights, respectively the patents protecting the Covid-19 vaccines, that announcement can be interpreted as a natural experiment from which we can directly observe effects. Immediately following that announcement, the stock price values of all four pharmaceutical companies with market-approved Covid-19 vaccines in the US and Europe dropped significantly. Comparing the pre- and post-announcement market capitalisation of the four companies, we can estimate the total value of Covid-19 vaccine patents to be B$37. Following the patent premium definition that value does not reflect the value of the actual vaccines, which is most likely to be much higher, but only the value of the patents protecting them

A literature review on the state-of-the-art on intellectual property analytics

In this paper, we contribute in solving the problem of incomplete adoption of IPA within firms, by producing a state of the art literature review on IPA methods and techniques. The paper’s aim is to summarise the existing work in the field, especially when it comes to the application of machine learning, artificial neural networks and artificial intelligence in the intellectual property domain

Identifying Crisis-Critical Intellectual Property Challenges during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A scenario analysis and conceptual extrapolation of innovation ecosystem dynamics using a visual mapping approach

The Covid-19 pandemic exposed firms, organisations and their respective supply chains which are directly involved in the manufacturing of products that are critical to alleviating the effects of the health crisis, collectively referred to as the Crisis-Critical Sector,to unprecedented challenges. Firms from other sectors, such as automotive, luxury and home appliances, have rushed into the Crisis-Critical Sector in order to support the effort to upscale incumbent manufacturing capacities, thereby introducing Intellectual Property (IP)related dynamics and challenges. We apply an innovation ecosystem perspective on the Crisis-Critical Sector and adopt a novel visual mapping approach to identify IP associated challenges and IP specific dynamic developments during and potentially beyond the crisis.In this paper, we add methodologically by devising and testing a visual approach to capturing IP related dynamics in evolving innovation ecosystems and contribute to literature on IP management in the open innovation context by proposing paraground IP as a novel IP type.Finally, we also deduce managerial implications for IP management practitioners at both incumbent firms and new entrants for navigating innovation ecosystems subject to crisis-induced dynamic shifts

Crisis-Critical Intellectual Property: Findings from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Crisis, pandemic, intellectual property, licensing, patent pledge, compulsory licensing, incumbents, new entrants, COVID-19Within national and international innovation systems a pandemic calls for large-scale action by many actors across sectors, to mobilise resources, developing and manufacturing Crisis-Critical Products (CC-Products) efficiently and in the huge quantities needed. Nowadays, this also includes digital innovations from complex epidemiological models, AI, to open data platforms for prevention, diagnostic and treatment. Amongst the many challenges during a pandemic, innovation and manufacturing stakeholders find themselves engaged in new relationships, and are likely to face intellectual property (IP) related challenges. This paper adopts an IP perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic to identify pandemic related IP considerations and IP challenges. The focus is on challenges related to research, development and urgent upscaling of capacity to manufacture CC-Products in the huge volumes suddenly in demand. Its purpose is to provide a structure for steering clear of IP challenges to avoid delays in fighting a pandemic. We identify 4 stakeholder groups concerned with IP challenges: (i) governments, (ii) organisations owning existing Crisis-Critical IP, described as incumbents in Crisis-Critical Sectors (CC-Sectors), (iii) manufacturing firms from other sectors normally not producing CC-Products suddenly rushing into CC-Sectors to support the manufacturing of CC-Products (new entrants), and (iv) voluntary grassroot initiatives that are formed during a pandemic. This paper discusses IP challenges related to the development and manufacturing of technologies and products for (i) prevention (of spread), (ii) diagnosis of infected patients and (iii) the development of treatments. We offer an initial discussion of potential response measures to reduce IP associated risks among industrial stakeholders during a pandemic

Chinese innovation system stakeholders’ perception of the importance and use of IP: Lessons from a field trip

Innovation has an increasing role in the economic progress of China. With Chinese patent applications surpassing those of Western countries, we aim to understand what is the actual perception and understanding of the value and importance of intellectual property (IP)on the ground in China. This paper reports insights from a field trip across 3key innovation clusters in China (Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai). We conduct an ethnographic studyusing20semi-structuredinterviews with academics and researchers, representatives from enterprises and economic service firms as well as university leaders and policy makers. The results reveal a high level of IP awareness in China. Whether academics, governmental representatives, entrepreneurs or venture capital executives, all interviews reveal a strong understanding and visibility of the importance of IP. Governmental rules for subsidizing patent applications seems to be changing in China in order to move from quantity to quality. While at least the leading universities have established technology transfer offices (TTOs), there still a need for improve service offerings given that these are still offered by IP law firms. Moreover, leading universities offer occasional IP guest lectures and they are in the process of installing IP. In addition, investors seem to understand the importance of IP when making investment decisions. We identify a positive speed of which Chinese innovation system actors are becoming increasingly IP savvy. At the same time, China’s large market size makes it less attractive to consider international IP strategies in early stages of a business. After succeeding in China, companies tend to prefer expanding into other Asian markets first, before venturing into Europe or the US

Exploring the Future of Patent Analytics: A Technology Roadmapping approach

In a connected world, where successful technological development depends increasingly on collaboration between different partners, effectively utilizing patent data analytics has huge, yet unexploited potential. Given suitable analytics solutions, this high-quality data can be used for decision making on a strategic level in all kind of organizations. The paper contributes to expanding the field of patent analytics for more effective exploitation of the worldwide largest repository of technological information. We do this by developing a domain level technology roadmap following a three-stage technology roadmapping and problem-solving approach. Firstly, from desk research and expert discussions, we identified five main problem themes in the patent analytics field (patent data, database interconnectedness, data analysis, data visualisation, and patent quality). Secondly, we verified and expanded these problem themes through an online survey with 70 respondents. Thirdly, we explored the future direction of the field through a workshop, with inputs from the preparatory stages above, with 28 leading experts. The approach served to develop a technology roadmap to facilitate collaboration and coordinated action within the patent analytics community. We identify thirteen priority technologies, such as artificial intelligence and neural networks, fifteen complementary technologies, such as block chain, and five new technologies, such as technologies for linking databases, to be adopted in the field and are important in overcoming the problems. We also identify twenty-one enablers for potential breakthrough progress of the field that cluster around four themes: technology development cycles and methodologies; legislation and standardisation for patent data quality; continuous professional development; and cooperation between industry and academia. Key next actions include the generation of use cases for different users, the standardization and harmonization of patent ontologies and the implementation of reporting standards

MIRTO: an open-source robotic platform for education

This paper introduces the MIddlesex RoboTic platfOrm (MIRTO), an open-source platform that has been used for teaching First Year Computer Science students since the academic year 2013/2014, with the aim of providing a physical manifestation of Software Engineering concepts that are often delivered using only abstract or synthetic case studies. In this paper we provide a detailed description of the platform, whose hardware specifications and software libraries are all released open source; we describe a number of teaching usages of the platform, report students’ projects, and evaluate some of its aspects in terms of effectiveness, usability, and maintenance